Friday, January 23, 2015

A Note from the Author... Hi, everyone, thanks for having me on this tour for Tame
a Wild Human! Don't forget to leave a comment at the end of this post for a
chance to win a $10 Riptide Publishing store credit.

Drugged, bound, and left as bait on the cusp of the lunar
cycle, Wyatt Redding is faced with a terrifying set of no-win scenarios. Best
case: he survives the coming days as a werewolf pack’s plaything and returns to
the city as a second-class citizen with the mark—and protection—of the pack.
Worst case: the wolves sate their lusts with Wyatt’s body, then send him home
without their protection, condemning him to live out the rest of his short life
as a slave to the worst of humanity’s scorn and abuse.

Wyatt’s only chance is to swallow every ounce of pride, bury
his fear, and meekly comply with every wicked desire and carnal demand the wolf
pack makes of him. He expects three days of sex and humiliation. What he
doesn’t expect is to start enjoying it. Or to grow attached to his captor and
pack Alpha, Cole.

As the lunar cycle ends, Wyatt begins to realize that the
only thing to fear more than being sent home without the pack’s protection is
being sent home at all.

Sweat trickled down Wyatt’s temples and pasted the thin cotton of his oxford to his shoulders and spine. Muzzy headed, arms and legs as heavy as cement, he fought to swim up from the deadening lethargy, but it was no use. He must’ve been drugged. He didn’t remember that happening, only his brother’s jeering voice reverberating inside the hood that had dropped over his head in the parking garage at work. Whatever Andrew had injected into him had numbed the fear, or he’d be pissing in his pants right now. Judging by the puff of humid air that whispered across his brow, he was free of the burlap shroud, but more fabric pressed his eyelids shut, so Andrew must have blindfolded him after he’d passed out. Gagged him too. He yanked his hands, but his wrists were bound tightly behind his back. He couldn’t budge his legs, either. The steady engine rumble and vibrations under his aching body suggested he was in a car, probably the trunk. The lack of traffic noise told Wyatt they were outside the city. During the onset of the full moon. The gag muffled his scream. Damn Andrew’s greed! As Wyatt struggled, he knew there would be no escape, just as he knew the fault lay on his shoulders as much as his brother’s. Andrew was dangerous. Impulsive and reckless. Occasionally cruel. But Wyatt hadn’t wanted to believe his brother was ruthless enough to throw him—a source of steady income—to the wolves. At best, his brother would seize his property and obtain a few years’ access to the whole of his income rather than the monthly payments he made to buy his safety. His brother’s profit would end when either the wolves or humans in the city inevitably killed Wyatt—and the longest a caught human had lasted was a scant three years. With Wyatt’s long-term earning potential, he was more valuable to his brother alive, as a free man. So he’d been certain Andrew wouldn’t dare. Wyatt had rarely been so catastrophically wrong. Tiring under the dizzy spin of drugs, he stopped struggling. He wouldn’t get away. Andrew was feral, but smart. He would’ve arranged this betrayal too neatly. Wyatt had to relax and find a plan. What had the firm’s security expert advised in abduction scenarios? Acceptance. Passive submission. Wolves might let him live if he didn’t fight them. Human enemies were far less merciful. And if he was careful, if he was clever, he might one day escape. Like everyone who could afford to, he’d prepared for the possibility of fleeing the city by hiding money and supplies. If he made it out of the next three days alive, and if he could evade his brother, other humans, and the wolves who secretly prowled the streets to keep a possessive eye on those who’d already been claimed as theirs . . . Running to a place no one knew he’d ever been the plaything of wolves and humans alike would be his only chance. He just had to survive this full moon. Only three days. If he won a wolf’s token, the city’s citizens wouldn’t risk harming him. Once he could retrieve his emergency fund and supplies, he might be able to finesse an opportunity to slip away. But the next three days would change him forever. The life he’d known was over. The first wolf hadn’t even touched him yet, and already his world had disintegrated to dust. No more plans for attaining a corner office. No more dates with Sandra ending in a sated and sweaty tangle in her bed. The Mustang convertible he’d driven, the Italian shoes lined up neatly in his closet, the partnership he’d been working toward—all of that was gone. If he survived the full moon, cameras at the city gates would record his return. Andrew would loot his property. Only the few survivors who earned a wolf’s token were permitted to work for wages, which were turned over to the survivor’s next of kin. And if he didn’t earn the token, he’d be trading his mouth and his ass to colleagues for a dirty corner of the firm’s basement between full moons. But life with his brother would be worse. At least the firm wouldn’t whore him to outsiders if he failed to earn a token. Peterson, from the tax division, hadn’t been prostituted, anyway. He served his typical ninety-hour weeks, except now for free, and bent over for the firm’s senior partners alone. Not that Wyatt had ever been tempted to try him, or any other survivor who’d returned without a token. Watching his father, who had been lost to the wolves when Wyatt was just fifteen, fade and die by inches in the slow aftermath of the full moon—until he’d just disappeared completely—had cured Wyatt of that. But he numbered among the very few who didn’t join in such abuses. Maybe dying quickly would be best.

Kari Gregg is the Featured Author for the month of January over at Riptide Publishing. To celebrate this new release, Riptide is offering Collard and Mating Season for 50% off! For more details, visit Kari's Author page at Riptide.

Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for a $10 Riptide Publishing store credit.
Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on January 25th. Contest is
NOT restricted to U.S. entries.

Be sure to leave a comment to be entered into the TTC Books and more monthly comment giveaway. EVERY comment that is relevant to the specific post will be entered. Prizes include various gift cards and swag donated by Publishers, Authors and blog Owner. REMEMBER TO LEAVE YOUR CONTACT INFO! How else will I notify you if you win?